Returned
by BrokenChosenofEva
Summary: Returned arc for Pilot's Table. Shinji was taken by Unit-01 at the end of the final battle with SEELE. Now, years later, Asuka may finally get him back.
1. Chapter 1

**Neon Genesis Evangelion**

_Pilot's Table_

By D.A.

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Title: Loss

Prompt: Set 1 / Prompt 50 (Writer's Choice)

Word Count: 1700+

Rating: T

Summary: Asuka recalls the loss of one of the Children with Hikari.

Disclaimer: I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion or anything connected to it.

Notes: Part one of the "Returned" story arc.

Minor edits.

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"I used to drink a lot more often than once a year…"

Hikari, sitting next to her old friend at the otherwise empty bar counter, turned and looked at the fiery-tempered red-head. Asuka turned the glass back and forth in her hand, staring into the amber liquid as if looking for a lost friend. It seemed sadly appropriate that everyone else in the bar was at the tables around the small stage watching a local rock band play, leaving her and Asuka alone.

"I started right after I got back to Nerv-Berlin." Asuka tipped the glass to her lips, taking a slow drink, "If you know where to look, you can find bars that will serve anyone who can see and reach over the counter."

Hikari kept her silence, waiting for her long-time friend to continue. Asuka didn't talk about back then very often. None of them really did, it hurt too much even now.

"I figured, if it worked for Misato, why not me." she shrugged, again staring into the glass, "She would find me an hour or so later, roaring drunk, screaming in some random park I had wandered into on my drunken way home. She never told me what I was screaming about, but I could guess…"

"Shinji…" Hikari guessed, breathing the name. Shinji's name had been taboo to mention around the red-head since back then, Misato telling her and Asuka's friends not to mention the lost Pilot around the girl.

"Yeah…" Asuka cut herself off, taking a shaky breath, "I had nightmares for awhile, I'd see those things…"

Asuka threw back the rest of the beer and pushed away from the counter. Hikari drank the last of her soda and followed the red-head out and to the car. It was cold this time of year in Tokyo-3, especially this late at night, the seasons having begun to be noticeable again after nearly forty years since Second Impact.

Looking up, Hikari could just make out the edge of the Geofront. After civilization had returned to the area, it was determined that the blast that opened it up to the sky had removed to much surface area to ever again enclose the Geofront. So now, every evening on her way home from work at her restaurant, Hikari would look at the stars through the circle of open sky.

Hearing Asuka gasp, she jerked head gaze down to her friend. Asuka was staring in shock, eyes filling with tears, at the car. Following her gaze, Hikari found it wasn't the car, but the young man standing beside it.

_No_, she thought in shock, _it can't be_…

Shinji, hazy and ethereal, seemed to float an inch or two off the ground beside Asuka's borrowed Renault Alpine. His mouth moved, but Hikari couldn't hear what was said.

"I miss you… Shinji…" Asuka whispered, her voice shaky, when he seemed to stop for a moment, "Every single day, idiot."

Shinji seemed to smile. A sad smile that showed both happiness and regret. Asuka shakily returned the smile.

And then he was gone, drawing another gasp from Asuka, jerking it from her almost violently.

Both young women gazed unblinking at the spot the boy's ghost had stood. Slowly, like feather, Asuka sank to her knees as she continued to stare into the distance, back to another time and place.

Hikari carefully walked over to her best friend, kneeling beside her. Asuka took a shaky breath and wrapped her arms around her middle as her eyes glistened.

"We… I'd just told him, demanding and self-confident as ever, that I would grace him with being his date at the dance that Friday. He… he'd stuttered and blushed like normal, and _damn_ if I didn't let myself admit it made him cute. Then he stood up from his homework and told me, calm as he could be at least around me, that I would sit down."

Hikari smiled, she remembered Touji- and here her own heart clinched painfully in her chest -tell her that Shinji was going with Asuka to the dance, so would she like to go with him and make it a double date.

"Well, he got up and walked over to me, blushing like mad. After a second he asked if he could go to the dance with me. He didn't stutter or pause, or anything." Asuka smiled, "The next two days were the best I'd ever had…"

"And then… It all fell apart." tears started silently falling from her eyes as she turned to look at Hikari, "Hikari, do you trust me? I need to tell you, you're my friend, but I've NEVER been able to talk about that day… I still can't get the words out..."

"Of _course _I trust you!" Hikari insisted, unsure what Asuka meant by telling her if she could say the words.

"Ok, just… don't run away." Asuka turn to fully face Hikari, and a faint orange glow wrapped around her hands as she slowly reached for Hikari's. Hikari froze, watching as Asuka's glowing hands took hold of her own. After a moment, Hikari thought she could hear Asuka crying, but it was in her head. Then everything blacked out.

000

When her vision cleared, Hikari had no control over what she did, and somehow realized she was seeing things the way Asuka had.

It was Asuka's memory of that horrid day.

The Entry-plug lit-up, the soft, orange tint vanishing as power flowed through circuits and energy surged through the Eva's limbs. Voices screamed or yelled through the radio as she swung the beast's arms up and stepped forward, shearing the cage restraints off her chariot's armor. She had no time to waste, Shinji was alone on the surface and needed her, the Great Asuka Langley Sohryu, to get up there and kick some butt.

Reaching one of the catapults to the Geofront surface, Asuka used her Eva's remote overrides to activate it and send her racing for the surface. Reaching the top she gained a quick glimpse of the area: Shinji in Unit-01 was grappling with a white, eyeless Evangelion and winning, bodies of several others scattered about, but there were still three awaiting their turn. When she arrived, two turned to face her, the slug-like heads splitting in a disgusting mockery of a grin as she charged them.

Violence sang its song in her ears as she drew her Eva's combat knife, the two-story handle extending an equally long blade as she swung it down through the shoulder of the closer of the two white cyborgs, slicing it's arm clean off in a spray of red blood which coated her Eva from right shoulder to right foot.

Dropping and rolling to avoid the second MP-Eva's clumsy grapple attempt, she slammed into something she hadn't noticed a moment ago: a wide, flat blade as tall as her Eva, with a two-handed grip in the middle and slightly off to one side. Perfect, she thought as she dropped her knife and gripped the blade by the handle.

Swinging the blade around as she stood, she slammed it into and through the other beast's legs, chopping them off, the blood pouring from the wounds mixing with the blood from the Eva with the missing arm.

Grinning, Asuka continued the spin and brought the blade around and into MP-Armless's side, not quite managing to cut it in half as the blade crushed and cut into the creature.

Hikari felt sick at the bloodshed, though Asuka had not at the time, but what came next chilled her to the core: a scream. A blood curdling scream of pain, rage, and defeat.

In Asuka's memory she had dropped the Blade and spun to face Unit-01. She saw it pinned to the pyramid there in the center of the Geofront with what looked like a two-pronged spear, _Lance of Longinus_, and the last standing white Eva leering at him with its disgusting maw, the circle of sky that was once the Geofront roof open above them.

Asuka charged, praying it wasn't to late, but knew she was too late when Unit-01 went limp and the radio became silent.

No, no, No, No, NO, NO, NO! Rang through Asuka's memory, both in her mind and out her mouth. She raged, tearing at the white monster that turned to her. Her vision, and thus her memory, was red.

When her sight cleared, she found pieces of white Eva covering her hands and the ground. Ignoring it, at least for a little while, Asuka knelt her Eva next to Shinji's pierced chariot. Ejecting the 'Plug, she scrambled as quickly as she could over to Shinji's already ejected plug. Climbing in through the wreckage in the side of the pyramid and over to the side of the plug, Asuka grabbed the handle of the emergency hatch, and with strength born of terror and rage, spun the handle and slammed the hatch open.

Empty.

No, not empty. Shinji's blood-stained plugsuit lay in the chair. But no sign of Shinji.

While Hikari was puzzled, Asuka simply began to scream at the purple cyborg. She raged at it for taking Shinji again. Hikari didn't know it had taken him before, and that was when a hint of memory of the Fourteenth Angel and its aftermath floated by.

Before Hikari could begin to view that memory, she suddenly found herself staring at her friend, back in the real world, and Asuka's tears now flowed freely down her face.

"That was how I lost him…" Asuka said, her voice breaking, her mask of strength finally slipping completely, and she began to sob. "But… but he isn't _really_ g-gone… sometimes… sometimes, l-like just now… I _see_ him, Hikari. Like he's really standing there!"

When Asuka had started talking Hikari had gathered her into a hug, and at her friends revelation that this had not been the first time an apparition of the Third Children had visited her, Hikari held her tighter.

She was going to have a _talk _with that purple monster, if she had to go through every single member of what was left of Nerv to do it. She'd lost her boyfriend to the wars that followed the aborted Third Impact, and she'd be damned if she didn't at least try to get her friend the love of her life back.


	2. Chapter 2

**Neon Genesis Evangelion**

_Pilot's Table_

By D.A.

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Title: I want Shinji  
Prompt: Set 1 / Prompt 39 (Remember)  
Word Count: 1300+  
Rating: T  
Summary: Hikari and Kensuke talk of Shinji and his Eva.

Disclaimer: I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion or anything connected to it.

Notes: Part 2 of the "Returned" arc. Minor edits.

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She was going to have a _talk_ with that purple monster…

Hikari stormed down the hallway in Nerv. She wasn't sure which hall anymore, only that the signs were pointing her in the direction of the Evangelion Cages.

She wasn't just storming down Nerv's corridors, though, but the corridor of her memories as well.

000

"Touji!" Hikari screamed as she ran down the hallway outside Asuka's old apartment. The fiery redhead had left last week to Pilot the rebuilt Unit-02 in defense of Nerv-Berlin before Russia made a run at the advanced base.

Touji dropped out of sight, and Hikari did the same as an RPG slammed into the building two floors down from where they were.

"Hikari! Get outta here!" Touji bellowed, leaning slightly over the wall holding a modified AK-74 in his eighteen-year old hands, and fired a burst at the heavily-armed terrorists.

Several rounds bounced off the concrete walls around the two teens as Hikari tried to crawl over to Touji.

000

The last thing Hikari could remember from that day had been a deafening roar, and blackness.

She had woken up in the Nerv Medical Recovery Ward. Misato had come in and told her she would be alright. When Hikari had pressed her about Touji, Misato had explained with tear-filled eyes that he had been in the center of a RPG explosion.

Hikari had cried herself to sleep for the next year and a half before she could think about Touji without bursting into tears, and if what Asuka had said about seeing Shinji was true, then the german had never had chance to heal.

000

"Hey, uh… Sub-Commander?"

Kensuke glanced up from the paperwork on the desk and looked over the edge and down at the Magi stations at the base of the Commander's Roost.

"What is it?" he asked, sounding bored. Which he was. Very bored.

"I have a Pilot the Magi are telling me is deceased accessing the Eva Cages…"

"Which Pilot?"

"Suzuhara, sir."

Kensuke sighed. Why was Hikari here so late? Hadn't she gone with Asuka for her yearly bar visit?

"Don't bother her. I'll be back shortly." he said, neatly stacking the paperwork to the side before getting up and stepping over to the Commander's Lift.

"Yes, sir."

000

"Do you remember, what happened back then?" Hikari asked quietly, "Can you remember?"

Unit-01 remained still and silent, locked down in the cage restraints, as Hikari leaned against the railing with her back to it.

"You managed to prevent Instrumentality, and gave us a chance to lock it away where no one will ever be able to start it again."

Hikari spun around to face the cyborg, her expression so blank it would have made Rei proud had she still been around to see it.

"But you hurt my best friend, in a way I might not ever be able to forgive you for." Hikari, woman of self-control and manners, slammed her fist against the railing, "You saved everyone else, and then ran away again!"

The Eva remained unmoving, a thing of flesh and metal seemingly frozen in time, as Hikari's accusation echoed through the Cage.

"But no, you couldn't just run away. Oh, no. You had to _haunt_ her too!" she jabbed a finger at the scowling visage, "She's cried for years! Because you don't have the decency to either vanish completely or come all the way back!"

Hikari took a deep breath, looking down as both hands gripped the railing. Sighing, she looked up at Unit-01's face.

"I know it isn't all your fault, Shinji. You aren't the one who chooses to be stuck inside that thing," Hikari scowled, recalling what she could of her glimpse at Asuka's memory, "But you are the one who decides when you get out! So why haven't you!"

In the ringing silence that followed, Unit-01 remained silent and still, and Hikari noticed faint footsteps echoing in the massive room. Turning, she saw one of her old classmates and the current Sub-commander of Nerv-Tokyo-3, Kensuke Aida.

"Wow, Iincho, what set you off?" he asked, his expression one of amusement and curiosity as he walked over next to her and leaned backwards against the railing. His uniform was crisp and neat, but his hair was still longish and messy. All he really lacked was the camera he used to always have in his hands.

Hikari remained just as silent as the Eva, turning back to glare at it. Kensuke noticed she had her hair down, her typical single braid missing, a style she had taken too when they started high school. It's looked good on her, and for the first time in years he wondered about what could be.

"Asuka broke down again." she stated.

"So?" Kensuke said, wincing when he realized how that must sound, "I mean… Come on Hikari, she does this at least once a year since she came back here. Why go off on the Eva now?"

"Because this time I saw the trigger…" she whispered.

"Huh?"

Hikari turned and glanced at Kensuke, then looked back at the beast.

"We saw Shinji." she frowned, "Well, a ghost really…"

"I hope you'll forgive me if I ask just what you're smoking…" he deadpanned, focusing his gaze on Hikari's face.

"I saw him, Kensuke. He was there, but… at the say time he wasn't…" she frowned, "I saw his mouth move, and Asuka responded. Then he just… vanished…"

"Anything else?" he asked, sensing that wasn't all.

"no… yeah, there was one thing…" Hikari looked away, "Remember how you told me one time how you kept getting intermittent pattern blues?"

"…yes…" he answered cautiously, wondering if this might have something to do with the pattern blue they'd detected earlier that night.

"Well… after Asuka started crying, she suddenly asked me if I trusted her," Hikari turned back towards the Eva, biting her lip as she paused a moment, trying to decided if she really wanted to continue, "I told her of course, and suddenly her hands glowed orange and she grabbed my hands…"

"She used her AT-Field… What happened Hikari?" he asked concern obvious in his voice.

"I…I saw Shinji die…" she whispered, the pain evident in her tone as her eyes shone with unshed tears.

Kensuke's jaw dropped in shock.

"I watched, from Asuka's perspective, as Shinji _died._" Hikari turned to Kensuke, "I felt like I was watching Touji die all over again. Asuka got to his plug and he was just _gone_."

Kensuke took a hesitant step towards his longtime friend, wrapping his arms around her shoulders as she started to quietly cry.

_You bitch._ he shot a glare at the Eva. He knew the secret of Yui, the woman trapped inside the monster known as Unit-01. _You couldn't just leave us be and keep your precious son. You had to torment us too._

"Hikari," he carefully pulled back, placing his hands on her shoulders as his face took on a determined edge, "Go home, and get Asuka to come in to Nerv tomorrow evening. I have a few matters I must attend to."

Hikari looked at him confused as she wiped the tears from her face, but nodded her acceptance of his request. Turning, she walked out of the Cage back the way she had come. After she left, Kensuke turned back to the Eva.

"You f_ing _bitch_." he said coldly, in a manner reminiscent of the late Commander Ikari. "You wanna mess with my friends? I _knew_ you should have been dismantled."

Kensuke turned to leave the Cage, but as he reached the door to the lift, he turned back and called across the chamber.

"I'm taking Shinji back. And so help me, if you scramble him or keep him from me, I will have you chopped down very, very slowly into lots of little pieces. I know you can still feel, and I will make you _suffer for what you did."_

Stepping into the lift, he missed the faint glow appear in Unit-01's eyes.  
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_A/N: This one was inspired by a song and rereading the other chapters in "Pilot's Table"._


	3. Chapter 3

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Pilot's Table

By D.A.

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Title: Home

Prompt: Set 30-b/ Prompt 019 (found)

Word Count: (2500+)

Rating: T

Summary: The NERV crew makes one more attempt at getting Shinji back.

Disclaimer: I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion or anything connected to it.

Notes: Well, this is my first fiction written out of country. I'm on deployment, and oddly enough feel more like writing now than back in the states. 2013-Jan/Feb Also, I've lost my file of prompts, so I had to get a new set. Starting with this chapter, I'll be using the 100-prompts tables from Still aiming for a Min of fifty, but we'll see.

Partly inspired by the Harry Potter soul-bond fanfic "H. J. Potter" by S.M wane.  
Part three of the "Returned" story arc.

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"Are you sure you didn't miss any notes?" Kensuke asked again, almost absentmindedly.

"No sub-commander, I didn't miss any notes, and I've rechecked all the calculations." Maya Ibuki said, sighing. With several more years, and several more PhDs under her belt much like her senpai, Maya was the picture of calm and wise. "Relax, Kensuke. The only way this won't work is if Dr. Yui actually fights it or Shinji refuses to leave."

"Yui is the one that worries me." Kensuke almost spits the name, "its why I asked Asuka to be here. Maybe her presence will give Shinji the boost he needs to get passed his mother..."

"If we fail, the depression it could cause her to fall into might be almost instantly fatal." she whispered.

"I know. I spoke with Hikari, Asuka has basically been the walking dead since she came back to Tokyo-3. We essentially lost Asuka the day we lost Shinji." Kensuke gestured out the observation window at the catwalk Asuka was standing on, "heartless as it sounds, we either try to get him back, or start planning Asuka's funeral."

000

"Can you hear me, Shinji..." the redhead whispered.

The thirty-four year old young woman stood patiently on the catwalk before the behemoth. Despite the years since she last stood there, she looked very much as she had then. Perhaps more mature physically and mentally, with the barest hint of wrinkles across her forehead, but the same crystal blue eyes and blazing copper-red hair. The years seemed to have almost passed her by.

"Stupid question... I know you can, you told me you heard Misato when she called you back then."

-Asuka, we're about to start the recovery program.-

"Alright, I'm ready." she looked up at the control room to see Maya and Kensuke looking down to her, then turned back to the Evangelion as faint a whirring and beeping started to pick up.

"I need you Shinji, I never got a chance to tell you."

-Link established, beginning command reroute.-

"I can't live with just a ghostly visit every few years when your mom decides to let you out." Asuka tuned out everything else, focusing only on talking to Shinji. And reaching out with her AT-Field. "I know you can hear me, and I'm begging you to come back. Please Shinji, don't-"

She stopped, her eyes locked with the suddenly glowing ones of the Eva. She noticed, in the back of her mind, that the talk coming from the control room was panicked, but paid that no mind. Like last time it would be Shinji and his mother, not the machines, that decided if he returned.

"Please, Yui, give me the love of my life back..." tears now coated her cheeks, her hands gripping the railing in a white knuckled hold as she raised her voice to yell, "damn it, give me back my Shinji!"

A ripple flowed over the surface of the S-2 organ in the center of the Eva's chest. Asuka gasped, hands to her mouth as she hoped against hope and took one step back. Another ripple, and the form of a young man was visible in the dull glow of the sphere.

"Shinji..." she whispered, then a faint orange glow reached out from the core and entwined with the glow from her hands, and all went black.

000

"Hello Asuka."

The gentle voice of a woman behind her caused Asuka to open her eyes upon a blank orange vista, devoid of any features. Turning, she finds herself face to face with a woman the spitting image of a brown haired and green eyed Rei. Yui Ikari, Shinji's mother and bonded soul of unit-01.

"Hello Yui."

"I'm sorry you've been hurt for so long." And the look on the woman's face, a face not any older than Asuka's, and the tone of her voice tell Asuka she truly regrets the pain Asuka has endured. "It's so hard to connect with the outside, I never knew the passing of time was so quick compared to what I can perceive here."

"What about Shinji's visits, hm?" Asuka demanded, "explain how he can visit me and see the passing of time, yet you still keep him to yourself!"

Yui flinched at Asuka's tone, wrapping her arms around herself.

"I never knew he was visiting you. Perhaps he didn't really know either..."

"I want him back, Yui!" Asuka screamed.

"Asuka...?"

The quiet, awed whisper of her name was like a roar in the silence after her cry, and she whipped around fast enough to lose her balance.

Only to be caught in the strong arms of a very familiar young man about her age. Looking up passed those arms to the face she could recall perfectly from her dreams and the apparitions she'd glimpsed, tears began pouring down her cheeks.

"Shinji..." whispered, hopeful and almost desperate, voice and tone twisting at the young man's heart, Asuka dared to believe what she saw.

"I'm here, Asuka." he whispered, his eyes tracing over every inch of her face as he helped her to stand and face him.

Crying his name over and over, voice filled with relief and joy, Asuka threw herself into his arms and held him with everything she had. Shinji returned the embrace, relief relaxing his frame as he whispered her name in her ear every time she spoke his. After what seemed to be hours yet at the same time seconds, Asuka pulled back from Shinji enough to look up slightly at his face.

"I love you."

Their words, spoken in-synch, mingle and mesh. And as they register what the other has just said joy lights their faces. Both of them grinning like idiots, Asuka presses her lips to his, and the world around them fades out of their awareness with only faintly spoken words following after.

"I'm sorry, my son, for what you and she endured because of my folly. I can only spend the last of this curse's power to grant the two of you a blessing and time."

000

From their vantage point in the control room, with all their attempts to recover Shinji failing faster than they can keep up, Kensuke and Maya see the orange glow flow from Asuka. As they watch, a second glow pushes out from the Eva and connects with hers, wrapping her in a rapidly brightening orange glow as the tones quiet and lights dim.

With a flash of near blinding orange light, the cage was empty of all but a pair of small bodies laying on the catwalk. Where the Evangelion had stood was now an empty suit of armor and the cracked red sphere that had once been an S-2 organ.

"What's" Maya cleared her throat, blinking to clear her vision, "what happened...?"

"I don't know, but that better be Asuka and Shinji down there..." Kensuke grabbed at his wrist, activating the small communications bracelet there, "Medical team to the Evangelion cage, two down on catwalk seven."

Putting a hand on Maya's shoulder, Kensuke run out of the room.

000

Light forces its way into his eyes, and the cold panelling of what he is laying on tells him he is not in bed. Forcing his eyes open, blinking at the brightness, Shinji's first sight is the smooth face and red hair of a young woman he knows well. A face he was so very afraid he would not get to see again.

"Asuka...?"

His voice is hoarse, scratchy, but it is enough. Asuka stirs, her eyes fluttering open as she adjusts to the bright cage lighting. She freezes, her eyes widening, the instant she sees him staring at her.

"Shinji..." hesitant, tears in the corners of her eyes as a fragile yet hopeful smile touches her lips, she reaches out and cups his cheek, blinking away more tears as she feels the warmth of his skin against her palm, "you're really here... I got you back..."

"I'm here, I came back." a smile splits his face as he assures her, and with a cry Asuka grabs him close. With Asuka pressing her face into his chest as she sobs, telling him between gasps how much she missed him, neither of them notice when Kensuke runs up to them on the catwalk and gasps.

000

Laying on the catwalk before Kensuke, holding each other so close they looked like they'll never let go, are two people who look barely out of their teens. Even so, Kensuke recognizes them both, and drops to his knees. It never really hit him how much he missed his best friend til now, and he was willing to bet that even Touji would be in tears at seeing Shinji back.

Running up behind him, Hikari gasps as well, dropping to her knees next to him and whispering Shinji's name.

"He's really back, Asuka got him back..."

000

Tears slowed, breathing evened out, Asuka lifted herself up slightly and looked down at Shinji. He looked younger than in the Eva's dream world, but he was there, and her heart told her it was Shinji.

"I love you." she said, grinning, "I think I loved you since you talked to me after the 14th, when I told you to leave and you ducked under the tape and held me anyways."

Shinji returned the grin with his own soft smile, "I loved you since we piloted your Eva together against the sixth."

"You look beautiful," he murmured, brushing his fingers through her hair, "almost like the day I asked you to the dance, before-"

Asuka did not let him finish, pressing her lips to his in a kiss both gentle and so full of emotion it stopped all thoughts in his mind.

000

"Asuka."

Hikari's gentle call startled both pilots. Shinji and Asuka bolted upright and turned to face the other two on the catwalk, but stayed pressed against each other's side, unwilling to put any more distance between themselves than necessary.

"Let's get you both dried off and in some clean clothes." she smiled, gesturing towards them, and they both suddenly noticed they were drenched in LCL.

The group stood, and with Shinji and Asuka hand in hand, they left the cage for the old pilots changing room, walking right passed a gaping medical team. Kensuke and Hikari separate from the two at the doors to get uniforms for them until they could get their own, while Asuka and Shinji enter the curtain divided locker room.

Quickly showered and wrapped in towels, the two pull back the curtain in perfect sync and sit side-by-side on the bench on the male side of the locker room. Shoulder to shoulder, fingers meshed together, the two relax and enjoy the presence of each other.

*I could sit here with you forever*, Asuka thought as she turned enough to look at Shinji's face.

"Same here Asuka." Shinji spoke quietly, glancing at her and smiling.

"Same what?" she questioned, startled slightly, "I didn't say anything..."

A slight frown marred his features as he titled his head to the side, "I'm sure I heard you say you could just sit with me forever."

Eyebrows drawn together in contemplation Asuka focused on Shinji, covered his eyes, and thought, *Don't open your mouth Third Children. Just tell me you love me*

*How am I supposed to tell you I love you if I don't open my mouth...*

Asuka's eyes widened, "Shinji, pay very close attention to how you hear what I say next."

"OK...?"

*I want you to tell me how you hear me right now.* Asuka thought, then lowered her hands to her lap.

"It...was in my head...?" Shinji answered hesitantly, earning a grin from Asuka as she nodded once in confirmation.

"We can hear each other's thoughts?" his eyes lit up as he watched her for her reaction.

"So it seems my baka." she grinned, leaning into his side again and sighing.

This was how Hikari and Kensuke found them, leaned into each other and occasionally chuckling.

000

"Well, it seems you're both perfectly healthy twenty-something year olds." Looking at the surprise on Asuka and Shinji's faces, Maya chuckled, "I don't understand it either. Just be glad you've both got an extra ten to fifteen years added on."

"That's not all." Asuka commented, then glanced meaningfully at Shinji.

"We can hear each others thoughts if we're directing them to each other." Shinji spoke, seeming a bit hesitant, "we don't know the range yet, we kinda don't feel too eager to test how far we can get just yet."

Shinji's ending comment earned a chuckle from Maya and an elbow to his ribs from Asuka.

"Well, if the de-aging and telepathy are the only effects of getting you back and drenched in both LCL and a powerful localized AT-Field, then you're free to go." Maya smiled, "just stop by the sub-commander's office before you leave."

"Will do, see you later Maya." grinning, Asuka grabbed Shinji by his wrist and dashed out of the med-bay, leaving a content Maya and Shinji's parting goodbye in her wake.

000

*You didn't have to run all the way here* Shinji thought to Asuka with a chuckle, *I'm sure Kensuke isn't going anywhere for a bit.*

*Relax love, I haven't been able to run like that in years, and you haven't had a chance to either* she returned, laughing out loud in the corridor as she tapped the call button to let Kensuke know they were there.

Shinji smiled at her, warmth filling him at her use of the endearment, *I know*

"Come in!" Kensuke called, his joy evident in his tone, even muffled by the door.

Opening the door and stepping into the office, Shinji quickly spots the small markers that say this was most definitely his friend's office. A few ship models rest on a book shelf that holds a mixture of military and NERV manuals and history books. On his desk stood action figure sized models of unit-01 and unit-00. The sight of unit-zero draws a twinge of pain in Shinji's chest. He knows his half-sister died the day he was absorded into unit-one, when she rejected Gendo's plans and stopped Seele.

"So, how are you Shinji?" Kensuke asked, smiling at his two friends, "eager to get home and to bed I suppose?"

"Yes, but I have a favor to ask first." Shinji says, grinning at his friends inuendo.

"Anything Shinji, just ask." the sincerity in Kensuke's voice tugs at Shinji's heart, drawing his attention to just how much he was missed, and not just by Asuka.

"Do you know any good jewelers?"

Both Asuka and Kensuke share a confused look, before Kensuke grins, then laughs. Asuka huffs in annoyance, knowing she is now the only one clueless, a state she never enjoyed.

"You don't waste time now do you?"

"I've been gone for over twenty years, right?" Shinji replies, smiling, "I have no excuse for taking my time."


End file.
